Beginning of July Check-In
Hi everyone! I hope you all are staying cool during the summer! It’s been really hot in California recently with multiple sequential days of over 95°F weather, so I’ve been spending a lot of time indoors keeping cool. A couple of new things are upcoming that I’m excited to share with you in my update.
What I’m working on:
I’m working studiously on the fifth seashell painting in the ‘Ocean Arrangements’ series of paintings. This one has a lot more details than the fourth painting in the series, so it’s taking a bit more time, but I’m really happy with how it’s coming together. Since I’ve been focusing on this painting in the studio, I’ve taken a break from the large detailed ocean wave painting I started last month to help me stay focused.
Since it’s been quite warm these last few weeks, and my studio building doesn’t have central air (we have an AC unit in our studio unit), I’ve spent more time at home. This has given me a lot of time to work on my abstract watercolor series and I’m working on the third painting in this series. This series is both quite different from the oil paintings I’ve created, but thematically similar and visually flows from what I’ve been working on.
Outings
I spent the majority of my day yesterday at the New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) figuring out the layout for the exhibition I’ve been the volunteer curator for. As a volunteer with genARTS, I’ve had the opportunity to work on this exhibition that will be on view at NUMU from July 19th to October 6th. This is the first exhibition that I’ve curated and I’ve learned a lot about the process and work that goes into putting together a juried exhibition.
I also have a few new opportunities that I wanted to share!
I’ve been commissioned by my undergraduate institution, Swarthmore College, to create a painting of a location on campus for their 2025 calendar. Every year, Swarthmore sends out a physical calendar to alums, students, and parents of students. In the past, the calendar has featured photographs of locations and buildings around the campus, but next year they’re going to use artworks from alums, faculty, and staff in the next year’s calendar, including mine! I’ll be sharing more updates as I work on this commission.
I’ve been accepted into my first artist residency at the Cuttyhunk Island Artist Residency! It’s a week-long residency from September 3-10th on Cuttyhunk Island, MA. I’ll be spending the week with 11 other artists and learning from a guest artist and guest scientist. I’m really excited to be attending this residency to have the opportunity to paint the ocean and coastal landscapes as well as learn from the other artists.
This month, I’ll be giving a live painting demonstration at the Filoli Historic Garden’s annual Art Walk. I’ll be one of the many artists scheduled to provide live art demonstrations during the weekend-long event; I’ll be painting from 4-7pm on Saturday, July 20th. This will be my first live painting demonstration in oil painting, but it’s not a class where I’m teaching oil painting techniques. I’ll be sharing my painting process and inspiration with art admirers who come to the Art Walk. I’ve visited Filoli previously, and I’m really looking forward to painting in the gardens. I’m not quite sure what painting I’ll be working on yet, but I’m considering starting a 6th painting in the Ocean Arrangements series to demonstrate. I do have to prepare a painting that is in different stages of progress to help highlight the different parts of my painting process, so I’ll have to get working on that soon.
That’s all for my update this week. A lot of exciting things are happening. My focus for this month is to spend more time in the studio painting. I have quite a bit of traveling coming up in September and October, so I want to paint as much as I can. I’m also traveling to Seattle this weekend for a 5 day trip, so let me know if you have any recommendations for my time there. Thanks so much for following along!
